Saturday, November 30, 2013

The crisis of the Church is a crisis of bishops indeed

A Catholic high School has postponed a talk by a controversial priest who encourages teens to “pray away the gay” — but the president of the Bronx school defied angry gay groups by saying the lecturer will be invited back.

Father Donald Timone was scheduled to speak Tuesday night at Cardinal Spellman High School about the Catholic group called Courage — which encourages teens "struggling with same-sex attraction" to lead chaste lives.

After outrage by lesbian and gay alumni, and some staffers, school President Trevor Nicholls scrubbed the event — but this battle is not over.

“The idea that this is the end of the matter is incorrect,” Father Nicholls said.

Nicholls added that Timone would likely be invited back after the school’s board of trustees weighs in — a formality.

Opponents of Timone — who say he treats homosexuals like addicts in a 12-step program — will continue their fight, too.

I guess it would be throwing gasoline on the fire to remind those alumni and staffers that sodomy is one of the sins that cries out to heaven for vengeance? If I live to be 120, I will never understand why so many Catholic priests shy away from being "divisive" or "controversial." Scripture isn't my strong suit, but I vaguely recall some important dude once saying that he came not to bring peace but a sword, and that even family households would be divided amongst themselves over his words. Obviously good Catholics can differ over tactics while sharing the same strategic goal, i.e. the salvation of souls. But there comes a point where you have to accept that it's not the way you're passing on the message, but the message itself people object to. Men said to Jesus Christ's very face that his teachings were too hard and they weren't going to walk with him anymore. Do you really think you can do the Messiah one better?

When discussions like these start, liberals are quick to shift the frame. They claim that the Church's teachings about the gravely disordered and sinful nature of sodomy are cruel and discriminatory. Those teachings single out a group of individuals and commands them to live a life utterly devoid of love and fulfillment. How dare you hateful bigots hold to your outdated superstitions when they inflict pain on real people!

There are two points to remember about the liberal frame: 1) they do not believe in the laws of nature or God; and 2) they believe this life is the only one there is. Far too many Catholics, like far too many "conservatives" accept this frame when they make their counterarguments ensuring they will lose the fight before it even begins. Human beings were not made for this world. As the old Baltimore Catechism put it, we are made to know God, to love him, serve him, and be happy with him both in this life and the next. We were made for eternity. We were made to be happy with God in heaven.

Jesus told us that the two great commandments are "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, etc.," and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." How do we love God? Jesus tells us, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." How do we love our neighbor? Love means desiring the other's good. And what could be a greater good than heaven? Love doesn't mean we passively watch our loved one tread the path of self-destruction. You'd intervene if your loved one was abusing drugs or alcohol, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you also intervene if they were routinely violating the commandments of God, if you really believe in the Christian religion? If you really believe in the Christian religion, then why do you allow liberals to reframe the discussion to a worldview that does not include God?

The cancellation did little to appease some staffers, who cited new Pope Francis’ attempt to get church leaders to move beyond divisive issues such as gay marriage, homosexuality and abortion.

"A lot of people are really pissed off (at the school for hosting Timone)," said one employee who asked to remain anonymous. "With the Pope urging people to back off on this issue the whole thing seems a little out of place."

Well, what the pope actually said was that we shouldn't disconnect the moral commandments from the message of the Gospel (although even then, I'm hard pressed to think of many Catholic priests who preach the moral commandments at all, let alone too much.) One writer takes exception to the school's actions:

The epidemic of pornography, adultery, sky-high divorce rates, human trafficking, treating others as objects and not as people made in the image and likeness of God, all can be traced back to the lack of virtue and purity in our lives.

Which is part of what makes the intolerance of those who seek to drown out the church’s beautiful teaching so alarming. For individuals and groups to bully, to threaten, to protest, when a priest seeks to explain this timeless and timely message to parents who invited him to do so, is a scary precedent. We have gone from the days when the plea from some activists was “all we want is to live our lives in peace” to “you shall not have the right to present your teaching.”

Who is being intolerant here? I am reminded of the recent shameful episode when Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was unable to give a talk after being shouted down by students at a renowned "liberal and tolerant" Ivy League school. Have we really reached the point where only one point of view can be expressed?

The answer, of course, is yes. Free speech is only for the free and equal superman, not for the filthy subhumans who are still bound by the chains of religion, history, tradition, and nature. And by the way your Eminence, but don't you have the power to get that school sorted out? Am I missing something? Is there something which compels you to be a passive bystander Cardinal Dolan?

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Pope St. Pius X

"With truly lamentable results, our age, casting aside all restraint in its search for the ultimate causes of things, frequently pursues novelties so ardently that it rejects the legacy of the human race."